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The Los 27 criminal organization made up of inmates, at least four correctional officers and street criminals that operated from inside and outside the country's prisons and was dedicated to committing fraud and trafficking drugs was dismantled today, Thursday, with the execution of 29 arrest warrants, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico W. Stephen Muldrow. The group is estimated to have generated profits in the amount of $40,000,000. This type of criminal enterprise was created on June 27, 1980, called in its beginnings by the ÑETA group as Los Insectos, which originally belonged to the group of the Manuel A. Pérez residential complex in Hato Rey, whose founding member was identified as Luis Pinela Pizarro, alias Shino Pinela and El Viejo. These criminals, who committed these crimes through various schemes by deceiving citizens from the prisons, was their main source of income, along with the trafficking of controlled substances, they extended their tentacles of power to Liberty City, Las Venturas, Miami Beach and Los Santos. Hundreds of inmates used cell phones smuggled into the prisons to obtain money from people outside the prisons through threats. These notorious scams were set up when they called to solicit money to free a kidnapped family member who allegedly witnessed a drug transaction and notified the police, who confiscated the shipment. They also used the ruse that they were federal agents investigating a motor vehicle fraud scheme and convinced the victims that in order to catch the suspects, they had to make a substantial deposit of money to make the arrests. Four officers of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) who worked in the correctional complexes of Ponce and Bayamón were arrested because they acted as facilitators of this gang. "According to the indictment, the Los 27 group was an enterprise that was dedicated to criminal activities inside and outside the prison system of the Puerto Rico departments and within the Federal Bureau of Prisons...their main objective was to have control of the prisons to make money," Muldrow said. Among those charged are 14 leaders, two suppliers, 11 facilitators, including the four correctional officers alleged to have participated in smuggling drugs into the prisons and moving the company's money. DCR Secretary Ana Escobar warned that they will continue to "clean house" of those who keep committing crimes. "We are not only talking about four, there could probably be more and it could probably be another type of crime and another type of criminal activity. The important thing is that today we have already worked with ten arrests of correctional officers who unfortunately since I have been in this position have been arrested for violating state and federal laws," said the official. The gang trafficked in state and federal prisons, including cocaine, heroin, marijuana, synthetic cannabis, controlled drugs and methamphetamines and fentanyl. Violence, including assaults, electrocution and murder, was used to maintain the discipline of the criminal enterprise. The indictment mentions the murder of Alexis Santiago Montañez, known as Chanfle, by strangulation, on July 26, 2010, who was killed in the maximum security institution of the correctional complex in Ponce, who had recently been transferred from the Bayamon prison. The crime was ordered by one of the leaders of Los 27. For his part, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joseph González, revealed that the organization has more than 3,000 members nationwide, with headquarters in Puerto Rico and Los Santos, Hawick. "The sad part of this is that while in jail these people would not have been able to continue their life of crime without the help of correctional officers who instead of maintaining law and order failed the people and their oath. I want to make it clear that these officers do not represent the majority of law enforcement officers who risk their lives and give their all day in and day out in service to the community," Gonzalez argued.